Read that again. What does "Top Democrat" mean to you? It could refer to an anonymous, angry strategist for the party.* It could mean a leader of the party or a leader in Congress. But what does it mean here?

Earlier today, Lanny Davis, a widely respected Democrat and one-time top advisor to President Clinton...

This is half true. Davis was a top aide to Bill Clinton from 1996 to 1998. Many things have changed since 1998, and the Top-ness of Lanny Davis is among them. Since 2008, at least, he's been completely irrelevent to the Democrats who won the 2008 election -- i.e., the Obamaites. If a Democrat in the Obama circle criticizes the goings-on of the throneroom, hey, that's news! But Davis has absolutely no pull those people. He is mocked openly by those people. My proposal: Some high-tech widget that refunds the clicks that websites get when they print a "Democrat criticizes Democrats" headline, and the Democrat in question is a professional churl like Davis. It's just misleading. The real Obama-ians are still on board with the Priorities USA Action onslaught.

*The great irony of the anonymous quote is that it sometimes lends impact to a statement that would not be very interesting, had it been fully sourced/explained.